Labor Party Re-elects Peres

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was re-elected unanimously as leader of the Labor Party and thus its candidate for prime minister in the next elections.

His re-election Thursday at a special session of the party’s Central Committee was in fact a formality, as he was unopposed. Peres drew warm applause when he said in his acceptance speech that his election was “a mandate not for me the man, but for the political path I represent.”

He dwelt on the burning need, as he saw it, to pursue the peace process. “Despite its painfulness. . . there is a solution,” Peres declared. But “first the politicians must not dodge the issues or foist them on the army. They must tell the people the truth.”